Legistar > Success Stories > City of Milwaukee
Transformed Legislative Workflows through Automation, Success Achieved Over 25 Years
The City of Milwaukee is the largest cultural and economic center in the state of Wisconsin. To keep city business running smoothly, Milwaukee City Council handles roughly 2,000 pieces of legislation—managing and tracking these was extremely time-consuming. This is why they pioneered legislative automation back in 1986 by helping design and implement Legsitar at their organization. It became the model product used to solve fundamental legislative challenges across the country. Since implementing the system, they have revolutionized their legislative workflow, achieving nearly $1.9 million in total savings.
- Record keeping, reporting, and information lookup was paper-based and labor intensive.
- Agenda production required a lot of staff to compile agenda items, finalize, and hand-type the entire agenda—everything done manually.
- They used 3 x 5 cards files to keep track of all ordinances introduced and these were manually indexed by sponsor, subject, and key dates.
- Proofreading for typographical errors was a large undertaking, requiring at least two staff members.
- Certified copies of an ordinance were printed in the newspaper and stored in a vault—it was a laborious process to compile and mail it.
- Thick committee with hundreds of pages were printed and assembled into binders before each committee meeting.
- Meeting minutes took roughly 4 days to complete. Council minutes were then printed and bound into a Journal of Proceedings which took roughly 3 weeks.
Back in 1986, we really pioneered legislative automation with Legistar. At the time, there wasn’t anything as comprehensive that meet our unique needs. It has worked extremely well for us the past 25 years—and the product continues to advance and grow as our needs change. 
Ron Leonhardt,
City Clerk
Milwaukee, WI
- All new pieces of legislation are put into Legistar and assigned to different committees based on Council rules.
- Departments are using a web-based app to submit agenda items—this eliminates the cumbersome re-entry of items that was previously required.
- Agendas are auto-generated in the system based on the particular file number and order they assign, then they are published to the web.
- Hearing notices are automatically generated through the system to inform them that a certain matter that affects them is up for deliberation.
- eBook or packet of materials files and related documentation is all digital and accessed by laptop during the meeting.
- Going online to retrieve information instead of needing to call their offices.
- Now, printing certified copies is all digital; there is no manual work behind delivering these.
- Before Legistar a council agenda would have taken 2 days to compile; now it’s a matter of minutes.
- They have saved roughly $1.25 million in annual printing costs.
- Reduced $600,000 in labor costs since their shift to an automated legislative workflow.
- Human errors are practically non-existent and they have been able to process legislative files faster and more efficiently.
- Minutes preparation time has decreased from 4 days to 1—and they completely eliminated the need to print the Journal of Proceedings.
- Many other departments and meeting bodies have even using for their own record-keeping and cost reductions.
- Citizens and staff now have an easy way to keep track issues as they pass through the legislative process—before this was nonexistent, they could only use the phone or attend meetings in person to stay informed.
